This management plan was developed by the Yukon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan Review Committee comprised of six individuals representing the Government of Yukon and the Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board. 

This report titled Wolf Technical Feasibility Assessment: Options for Managing Wolves on the Range of the Bathurst Barren-ground Caribou Herd was finalized on November 10, 2017, by the Wolf Feasibility Assessment Technical Working Group. The Wolf Feasibility Assessment Technical Working Group (WG) was formed to compile information about wolf management options and their risks. These options are to be provided to management authorities, who in turn, and depending on their decisions, will submit specific management proposals for review in a public forum to allow for further discussion. The WG examined options for reducing wolf predation through lethal and non-lethal removal of wolves. Each option was reviewed under four criteria: humaneness, cost efficiency, likely effectiveness, and risks and uncertainties. The main text of this document was kept relatively brief with details provided in appendices. The WG applied detailed criteria to assess the humaneness and welfare of each option as well as examining the relative cost, while acknowledging that more details will be required for specific proposals. Risks include the limited information about wolf numbers and predation rates, and overlapping distribution of Bathurst caribou with neighbouring herds in recent winters. The overlap may locally increase caribou and wolves, but, in spring, the herds separate and return to their calving and summer ranges, and the wolves typically return to their dens on the herd’s summer range. The Wolf Feasibility Assessment Technical Working Group (WG) was formed to compile information about wolf management options and their risks. These options are to be provided to management authorities, who in turn, and depending on their decisions, will submit specific management proposals for review in a public forum to allow for further discussion. The WG examined options for reducing wolf predation through lethal and non-lethal removal of wolves. Each option was reviewed under four criteria: humaneness, cost efficiency, likely effectiveness, and risks and uncertainties. The main text of this document was kept relatively brief with details provided in appendices. The WG applied detailed criteria to assess the humaneness and welfare of each option as well as examining the relative cost, while acknowledging that more details will be required for specific proposals. Risks include the limited information about wolf numbers and predation rates, and overlapping distribution of Bathurst caribou with neighbouring herds in recent winters. The overlap may locally increase caribou and wolves, but, in spring, the herds separate and return to their calving and summer ranges, and the wolves typically return to their dens on the herd’s summer range.Through evaluation of technical opinions and computer modelling, the WG found that removing about 124 wolves in the first year and maintaining low wolf numbers for 5 years, gives the highest likelihood of halting the Bathurst herd’s decline and starting it toward recovery. Although the options are evaluated individually, combinations of options may have an increased probability of success.

This is correspondence from the Délı̨nę Renewable Resources Council to the WRRB providing comments on the 2020 WRRB Wolf Management Proceeding.

This is a letter from the SRRB to the WRRB providing comments on the 2020 WRRB Wolf Management Proceeding.

Abstract

1. Human-dominated landscapes are being recolonized by large carnivores, thereby increasing conflicts worldwide via predation of livestock and harvested wildlife such as ungulates. Recent meta-analyses have shown that predator control (hereafter, predator removal) has mixed success in reducing livestock predation. Yet, itis unknown how effective predator removal is in decreasing predation on ungulates due to a lack of quantitative synthesis, despite the long history of implementation in North America.

2. We quantified the demographic responses of ungulate survival and recruitment rates, abundance, and population growth to experimental predator removal and identified the ecological and experimental design factors affecting ungulate responses to predator removal. We conducted a literature review of management and natural experiments to increase ungulate demography finding 52 predator removal experiments and 10 natural experiments from 47 publications. We then conducted a meta-analysis to determine the overall effect size and factors which increased ungulate demography during predator removal. Lastly, we tested for evidence of publication bias and experimental rigour for these experiments.

3. We found that predator removal in both management and natural experiments increased ungulate demographic responses by 13% (95% CI = 4.1%–23%), yet prediction intervals overlapped with 0 (95% PI = −34% to 93%). Focusing just on management removals, ungulate demographic responses increased only by 7.8%(95% PI = −32% to 72%), indicating that future experiments could have negligible effects. Predator removal in both management and natural experiments was more successful in improving the demography of young (e.g. recruitment ES = 44%,95% CI = 13%–83%) but equivocal in improving adult survival (ES = 5.4%, 95%CI = −18% to 36%) and ungulate abundance (ES = 13%, 95% CI = −17% to 31%).The low and variable effectiveness of predator removal for ungulate populations might be linked to ungulates' slow life history and the compensatory mortality of carnivores on ungulates, though effects were stronger on endangered prey.

4. We identified the experimental design factors that led to greater uncertainty in ungulate responses to predator removal, including lack of randomization, low replication and short temporal length. Lastly, we found evidence of publication bias, where experiments with poor rigour and negative effects (i.e. reduced ungulate demography following predator removal) were under-reported.

5. Synthesis and Applications. We recommend future predator removal experiment Synthesis and Applications. We recommend future predator removal experiments be conducted with a more rigorous experimental design to overcome these weaknesses, especially for endangered species where predator removal may work more effectively. We suggest that managers attempting to evaluate experimental practices to increase ungulate populations through predator removal could employ an open standards framework akin to the ‘Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation’ framework.

This traditional knowledge report is a part of a study on contaminants in a northern terrestrial environment. The goal of the contaminants study was to investigate if fluorinated hydrocarbons (Perfluorocarboxylic acids [PFCAs] and Perfluorosulfonates [PFSAs]) bio-magnify in the terrestrial food system. 

This is the WRRB submission to the GNWT and TG, entitled "Reasons for Decisions Related to a Joint Proposal for Dìga (Wolf) Management in Wek’èezhìı".

This is the WRRB submission to the Tłı̨chǫ Government and Department of Environment & Natural Resources, Government of the Northwest Territories, entitled "Reasons for Decisions Related to a Joint Proposal for Dìga (Wolf) Management in Wek’èezhìı". It was submitted on January 8, 2021.